Patents and similar rights of exclusion (collectively referred to as “patents” hereinafter) often have to be enforced to maximize their value, or even to obtain from them any value at all. But before any enforcement steps can be taken, the patent owner needs to identify potentially infringing goods, services, or processes. (Goods, services, and processes will be collectively referred to as “products” hereinafter.) To identify the potentially infringing products, the owner needs to ascertain, or at least guess, the meaning of the claim elements, and to compare the universe of existing products to the elements of the claims. This can involve a great deal of effort and expense on the part of the patent owner.
A need thus exists for apparatus and methods that can automate the process of identifying potentially infringing products.